Canal St Station: Ridership & Busiest Hours

12,406riders a day
#76 of 424busiest stations
+4.5%vs last year so far
5 PMbusiest hour

How busy is Canal St?

About 12,406 riders a day enter Canal St (Oct 23, 2025 – Oct 22, 2026). It is the #76 busiest of 424 subway stations. Ridership at Canal St is up 4.5% in 2026 so far compared with the same days of 2025 (whole subway: +2.9%).

When is it busiest?

Average riders entering per hour, last 56 days (from Aug 28, 2026).

The busiest hour is 5 PM, with about 2,076 riders entering on an average day. The quietest hour is 4 AM (about 20).

  • 12 AM157
  • 1 AM64
  • 2 AM34
  • 3 AM21
  • 4 AM20
  • 5 AM30
  • 6 AM74
  • 7 AM221
  • 8 AM350
  • 9 AM325
  • 10 AM338
  • 11 AM417
  • 12 PM536
  • 1 PM653
  • 2 PM808
  • 3 PM1,114
  • 4 PM1,515
  • 5 PM2,076
  • 6 PM1,676
  • 7 PM1,061
  • 8 PM709
  • 9 PM510
  • 10 PM361
  • 11 PM258

Station report card

Elevators and escalators: share of hours in service over 24 hours, October 2025 – September 2026 (MTA availability). Entrapments = times riders were stuck inside an elevator. Riders vs 2019 compares the last 12 months with 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.

Accessible (ADA)No
Riders vs 201971% of the 2019 level (October 2025 – September 2026)

Where do riders from here go?

Share of subway trips starting here that end at each station, September 2026 (MTA origin-destination ridership estimate).

The top 5 destinations take 22% of subway trips that start at Canal St.

  1. 1
    Times Sq-42 St/Port Authority Bus Terminal1 2 3 7 A C E N Q R W S · Manhattan8.4%
  2. 2
    34 St-Penn StationA C E · Manhattan7.3%
  3. 3
    14 St/8 AvA C E L · Manhattan2.8%
  4. 4
    59 St-Columbus Circle1 A C B D · Manhattan1.8%
  5. 5

Lines at this station

On time = share of each line's trips reaching the last stop within 5 minutes of schedule (MTA terminal on-time performance), October 2025 – September 2026. The MTA measures this per line, not per station.

Canal St is served by the A, C, E trains.

A train · 77.9% on time C train · 80% on time E train · 76.6% on time

Nearby stations

Straight-line distance.

StationLinesRiders a dayDistance
Franklin St14,2560.1 mi
Canal St13,9110.2 mi
Canal St6 J Z N Q R W34,4610.3 mi
Spring StC E11,4340.4 mi
Chambers St1 2 311,5600.4 mi

Questions

How many people use Canal St station?

About 12,406 riders a day enter Canal St (Oct 23, 2025 – Oct 22, 2026). It is the #76 busiest of 424 subway stations.

When is Canal St station busiest?

The busiest hour is 5 PM, with about 2,076 riders entering on an average day. The quietest hour is 4 AM (about 20).

Is Canal St getting busier?

Ridership at Canal St is up 4.5% in 2026 so far compared with the same days of 2025 (whole subway: +2.9%).

Which trains stop at Canal St?

Canal St is served by the A, C, E trains.

Data: MTA Subway Hourly Ridership (data.ny.gov). Riders are entries at the turnstiles and OMNY readers, so transfers inside the station are not counted. Updated Oct 29, 2026. All stations ranked → · All subway ridership →
Source code: github.com/MantieReid/mta-data-analysis · Analysis by Mantie Reid II (CC BY 4.0).

This is an independent data analysis project and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

Data is sourced from the MTA through the New York State Open Data Portal. Visualizations, calculations, and interpretations are independently produced. Data may be revised, incomplete, or delayed. For official transit information, visit mta.info.